gesso and boskoop

It was hard exiting such a creative weekend for an early morning of work, but luckily I didn’t completely lose the roll that I was on. Tonight I did one of my favourite things…I got out the gesso and went to work on stalled paintings that have been gathering dust (and feathers) in my art corner.

When I work on a painting, I tend to get attached to the little details: an artifact or scrap of paper I wanted to showcase visibly, but I discovered needs to be painted over, a martyr for the cause of composition. At that point, I can’t let it go, and so the painting recedes for several months.

Then this reckless mood comes along where I am ready to let go of what I was clinging to, and out comes the gesso. I love what happened to the bottom painting in the photo when I covered up the old windmill I had painstakingly sourced and transferred with acrylic gel, but was just not working. Bye bye windmill…

The middle painting was going pretty good, but there were parts of it that were too perfect, too calculated. The top painting was actually something that one of my kids finger painted, and I just decided to cover it up and see what happens. So far, what has happened is the finger paint is tinting the gesso. Could be interesting. We’ll see what becomes of these over the next few weeks.

All day I was looking forward to eating this apple…we picked apples at a local orchard last weekend, and these boskoop apples are so good! I first discovered them about ten years ago in a village I frequently walk in on a seemingly abandoned tree. I didn’t know if they’d be any good, but they turned out to be so delicious!